Minden is a census-designated place (CDP) in Douglas County, Nevada, United States. The population was 3,001 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Douglas County and is adjacent to the city of Gardnerville. It was founded in 1906 by Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg Jr., who named it after the town of Minden, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which was near his father's birthplace. Minden was founded on company land of the Dangberg Home Ranch and Dangberg commissioned most of the town's early buildings.